I cannot swear this was a UFO, but would like to compare our "sighting" with others to see what they think.

This happened a long time ago. Mary Tyler Moore (NOT a re-run) was on TV at the time. It was just past dark, probably in early summer. I think the show "Canon" was coming on. These were my favorite TV shows at the time. I lived with my grandparents at the time, and was probably about 18 or 19 years old. I'm 45 now. This would have been about 1975, I guess. My grandma, grandpa, and I were home. Grandpa has passed away now, and Grandma had a severe stroke, so I am the only one who can tell about this incident. We lived in the country, 7 miles from town, so the window curtains were up (we never closed them at night.) The weather was clear and warm. It should be noted that some very high voltage electric lines run across our farm. (We have experienced several strange phenomena besides what I describe here.) I also want to note that we frequently walked around outside the house at night, to feed animals, get things from the car, bring in clothes off the clothes line, and so forth. On really nice nights, we sometimes sat in chairs on the porch and watched the stars. So we were all familiar with the ordinary things you see at night, from our farm. For example, you can see the lights from houses of distant neighbors, and even lights that are probably part of a nearby town. But what we saw on this night was very different. I had my back to the window while watching TV. Grandpa sat across from me, facing me, and grandma was probably in the kitchen. Just then, a bright flash of light appeared outside. It was so bright that I saw it despite having my back to the window. My cousin later told us that she too had seen a bright flash of light outside from my Aunt's house, which is about a mile away. None of us ever thought this was lightening, and there was no thunder -- no sound at all. Grandpa got up and went outside. He thought something on our electrical pole had shorted out. We had been having problems with it for a few days. Grandpa came running back in, looking terrified. "Strange lights, strange lights!" He screamed. I had never before nor after seen Grandpa acting like this. He was one of the quietest and most calm people you've ever known. Grandma and I ran outside. In the distance, maybe a quarter mile away, were the lights. There were several rows of red lights, stacked one on top of the other. These appeared to be in a field, about two farms distant from us. They were not in the sky; i.e., this was not a flying object but something on the ground. If I have to describe an overall shape, I would say a cigar, because the "object," if it was one, was much longer than it was tall, from our point of view. If this was an object, it would have to be very large. I would say as much as 40 or 50 feet across. To me it looked as if all the many lights were distinctly separate from one another, in about 3 or 4 rows. A row across the bottom, then another row above, then another above, like well-spaced Christmas tree lights. They appeared to flicker, twinkle, or possibly rotate -- we were far enough away that I couldn't tell for sure. I know that if you stare long enough at a distant light on a dark night, it can appear to twinkle. We watched this thing for a long time, all expressing our views on what it was. Grandma thought a bunch of people had parked their cars, leaving the taillights on. Neither Grandpa nor I thought that was possible. After all, we were way out in the country and that would mean about 30 or 40 cars, all facing the same way, had somehow gained access to the neighbor's private property and left their lights on. We speculated that it might be something on fire, but the lights seemed too evenly spaced for that. In retrospect, it seems weird that none of us thought of calling the Sheriff or anything. I think it was just too bizarre and we were in too small a town and didn't want to be in the news or get laughed at. There had been a recent incident of a light following two girls home, and 16 people witnessed the light. This made the local newspaper. Also, there was a "cattle mutilation" in the next town, which also made the news. My grandparents really didn't want to be in the news, I think. But this does show a recent record of strange occurrances. Grandma and Granpa wanted to get in the truck, drive down the road in that direction, and see what this thing was. I myself had read a lot of UFO abduction stories in paperbacks of the time, and I was very frightened to get any closer. I really was a fraidy cat at the time, and I actually pulled them out of the truck and wouldn't let them go. I deeply regret that now, no matter what had happened. So we continued to watch this thing, and then suddenly it just disappeared. Like all the lights had turned off. Throughout this incident, we never heard a noise of any kind. We continued to look over there a while, then gave up and went into the house. ------- I want to add another, totally different incident here. We've had a history of seeing "strange lights" on the farm, dating back to the turn of the century. My grandpa grew up there, and he and his brothers used to jump on mules to chase lights that appeared and disappeared in various places. I heard these stories all my life, but had never witnessed this for myself. In 1984, I saw these lights for myself, along with my brother, sister-in-law, and mother. My brother, sister-in-law, and I were outside at night. Grandpa was having surgery and the family had all gathered. We were outside that night looking at the stars and talking. There were two australian shepherd dogs on the farm, and they suddently went racing off into the nearby pasture, which belongs to a neighbor. Thinking they were chasing the neighbor's cows, I walked over to call them back. I heard a noise like a crying baby. This is also the sound a rabbit makes when it dies. So I stood by the fence, thinking I was hearing a rabbit's death cry. (Let me note that those two dogs were NOT hunting dogs and I had never known them to hurt other animals, so this seemed strange to me.) Anyway, the dogs suddently came charging back towards me, through the fence, and got behind me. I no longer could hear the strange sound. I looked over the fence thinking maybe the neighbor's bull was chasing the dogs back toward me. What I saw was a red light, which rotated slowly. It illuminated everything in its path as it turned -- the trees, grass, etc. were all very clear. It seemed to hover a few feet above the ground, and I could not see anything supporting the light, holding the light, etc. This light was only about 50 feet or so from where I was standing, and though I could see everything the light illuminated, I saw nothing supporting the light itself. The other weird thing was that the dogs were not barking. These were very, extremely aggressive dogs when it came to strangers. One of these dogs had bit several people. The other dog had such a fierce bark that most people were afraid to get out of their cars until you called the dog off. But neither dog was barking or growling. I went to get my brother and sister-in-law and they came over to see this light. We were standing there talking about what it might be, when it went out. We started to walk back toward the house when the light re-appeared, only now it was farther away, down by the barn. At this point, my sister-in-law must have run to get my mother. I walked down towards the barn to get a closer look at this light, when it disappeared again. Very quickly, it re-appeared much further away, way out in the neighbor's field, this time at least 100 to 200 yards from the barn area where we had just seen it. I was so busy watching this light that I didn't realize my mother also saw it, until we discussed it later. Finally, the light disappeared and did not return. We never figured out what could have caused this light. Later, when Grandpa got out of the hospital, we told him about it. He just laughed, shook his head, and said, "Oh. They're back."